This application claims the priority of Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-339148, filed on Nov. 5, 2001, which is incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to an escape device which enables a person(s) to escape or descend from a high position such as a building and especially from a high-rise building which makes it difficult to rescue or evacuate people even by aerial ladder trucks or helicopters.
A horrible terrorism disaster in the U.S.A., widely known as the crashes of hijacked airplanes into skyscrapers on Sep. 11, 2001, has remained in the minds of many people. The skyscrapers were entirely destroyed, injuring and killing a great number of peoples, which was reportedly mainly due to a fire occurred in the buildings.
In the case of a low-rise building, an aerial ladder truck or ladder-type fire engines can be utilized to rescue the building occupants therefrom. On the other hand, with regard to a mid-rise building or a high-rise building, it is necessary to use a helicopter for the rescue actions.
However, with an increased number of gigantic high-rise buildings or skyscrapers having recently prevailed in many parts of countries world-widely, there is an increasingly high possibility for strong winds to be blown among those extraordinary tall buildings, which may prevent access of rescue helicopters to a target points in the buildings and result in unsuccessful rescue activities. Moreover, when a fire occurs in the high-rise buildings, most of the building occupants will be exposed to a high heat and smokes and attempt to get out from the windows. If they fall from the windows of such high-rise buildings, a fatal consequence will inevitably result and there would be no assurance to their lives. Even when a fire occurs in a low-rise building, it is possible that the roads and streets around the building are intricate and narrow, in which case, any aerial ladder truck or ladder-type fire engine can hardly run through the roads and streets to reach the building, thus making it difficult to rescue the building occupants therefrom.
In view of the above-stated drawbacks, it is a purpose of the present invention to provide an escape device which permits at least one person to escape or descend from a high position to a low position under an emergency condition where a fire occurs.
In order to achieve such purpose, the escape device in accordance with the present invention is basically comprised of:
an elastic cord means having a length and an property of being stretchable from the length to a maximum length substantially at a predetermined landing point, said elastic cord means having a free end;
a container means so designed that the elastic cord means is supportively stored while being allowed to be pulled out therefrom, the container means being provided at a high position; and
a carrier means connected with the free end of the elastic cord means, the carrier means being so designed to permit the at least one person to hold the carrier means or secure his or her body thereto and descended therewith via the elastic cord means from the high position to the predetermined landing point.
In one aspect of the invention, the carrier means may comprise a bar element capable of being grasped and held by hands of the person.
In another aspect of the invention, the carrier means may comprise a backpack-type carrier unit having a shoulder strap means, and there may be provided an auxiliary rope means which is supportively stored in the container means while being allowed to be pulled out therefrom, while the carrier means be releasably connected with the free end of the elastic cord means. Also, there may be provided a disengagement means which is connected with the free end of auxiliary rope means, the disengagement means being workable to disengage the free end of elastic cord means from the carrier means when the carrier means reaches the predetermined landing point while at the same time the auxiliary cord means is pulled out and extended to the whole length thereof.
In still another aspect of the invention, as the carrier means, a first carrier means and a second carrier means may be provided, using the auxiliary rope means and the disengagement means, with such an arrangement that the first and second carrier means may be disengaged from each other via the elastic cord means, auxiliary rope means and disengagement means when they are descended from the high position to the predetermined landing point. In such case, the second carrier means may comprise a backpack-type carrier unit having a shoulder strap means,
In yet still another aspect of the invention, a gondola may be provided on the foregoing first and second carrier means so as to accommodate at least two persons therein, in place of the backpack-type carrier unit.
The above and other purposes, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken with the accompanying drawings.